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Fangirl Friday! Care talks... Homeschooling?

I've spent a good deal of time umm-ing and arr-ing about what I should gush about this go. I've never been one to gush all over about a certain celebrity and what they're doing, or a sport, a game, or really anything but books - and we cover that pretty well every other day of the week! Then it occurred to me. I spend an awful lot of my time doing several specific things, things I love, and things that don't get gushed about enough. And so, a Fangirl Friday was born!Homeschooling. I know, right? Not the typical fare for a book blog. Follow me through the jump to see what it is I love about homeschooling, and just how it relates to books and a love of reading!

Homeschooling. It's rapidly becoming a much more mainstream thing to do. Between the issues with the Common Core Curricular Standards and standardized testing, more and more parents are choosing to keep their children home, and educate them there. It's not so radical an idea - after all, about a hundred years ago, there was no system of organized education, and people either educated their children at home, or the kiddies went off to the one-room schoolhouse, where everything "school" was all under one roof, mixed ages and abilities. In my house, homeschooling is neigh-essential. My child is an atypical learner, spread across multiple grade levels by subject. My husband works unusual weeks - Thursday to Sunday - meaning our weekend days fall on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. If we tried to keep a Monday to Friday schedule for public school, we would never see another weekend! Add in the freedom homeschooling allows us, and it's a beautiful thing. We are free to travel across North America to visit family and friends any time we choose. We don't have to wait for school breaks, and there is no issue of truancy, because we can make up days if need be, any time we like. Good Friday? We can have school that day, or not - whatever we want to do. We had school over a number of days the public schools were cancelled, which puts us a bit ahead of the game. We were able to take our big break from November 1 to January 25, with no problems whatsoever. We had all the time in the world to travel, visit with our friends who were moving out of the country, enjoy Hallowe'en candy without having to worry about trying to sit still... It's been nothing but a blessing.I also get to choose what my child will be studying. Right now, we're winding down for Spring Break, a choice I'm free to make so we can visit family for Easter, instead of having had our break three weeks ago, and nothing but Good Friday off for the holiday. We will spend this week winding down, covering math and reading, instead of our usual schedule. We get to study science, and grammar, sure, as well as handwriting, but we also get to learn logic, Latin, history, art, and spelling. We get to mix and match philosophies and methods that work best for us in any given subject, and given that both of us are visual-spatial learners and schools are taught audio-sequential... This is a huge plus.I also, however, get the opportunity to introduce my child to the joys of read-alouds. Not necessarily the ones where Mama holds the book and child sits on lap, but the joys of audiobooks. So we can both be read to together. We listen to classics like Peter Pan or The Jungle Book, The Hobbit or even Mr. Popper's Penguins, and we get to listen to the fun things (like mama using her audiobook credits to download Go The F*ck To Sleep) as well! It's been a great way to introduce my child to some of the things I love - both the love of learning and the love of books, while still accomodating his differences. It's been nothing but wonderful, and I really hope to continue for a long time to come!

How about you, dear readers? Have you ever thought of homeschooling? Do you have any suggestions for great read-alouds? Tell me your thoughts!

Comments

This was really interesting Care, especially for me because homeschooling isn't very common here where I live. In fact I found an article since 2011 where it said that in the school year 2008-2009 there was only one student getting homeshchooled. I don't know how it was before that or how it has been since 2011 but there aren't many.

I haven't thought much about homeschooling and I don't think the kids would really want to be homeschooled. For one thing, I think they would miss the social life and the fun stuff that goes on in the school. And we don't live close enough to others so they can't just go out and visit their friends whenever they want after school.

I went to school to be a teacher, and homeschooling (since I knew a homeschooler in my teens) was always sort of kicking around in the back of my head. Then I had a little one whose needs aren't exactly easy to meet, and... BOOM. Homeschooling. There is an immense population (nearing 1.5million, by estimate) in the US, and then Canada is added on top of that.

Because of just how many there are (we have over 200 families on the local homeschool group list!) it's pretty easy to find social engagements - there is a gym day every Friday, park days two or three days a week when spring arrives, DS is enrolled in a homeschool science program, there's co-op, extracurriculars... The social is never a problem, and often times you hear at these events "why is it called HOME schooling?!? We're NEVER HOME!!" XD All in all, it's a wonderful opportunity - though certainly not for everyone!

I've been homeschooling my son for 7 years, and it's the best decision I ever made. He has ADHD and Asperger's, and a tradtional school setting just didn't work for him (he went to public school for kindergarten - second grade). My daughter spent more time in "real" school, but when mental health issues made it impossible for her to go, I pulled her out after spring break last year.

They're both much happier at home, and I like having them here (and not just because we live in a crappy school district). We get to decide together what they'll be studying (I'm just finishing up a unit study on ancient Egypt for next year), and I can tailor to their needs (minimal writing for my son).

It's not for everyone, but once you get acclimated, it's also not as hard as I imagine a lot of people think it is.

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